By
Chuck Baldwin

   Toogood Reports [Tuesday, April 3, 2001; 12:01 a.m. EST]
URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/ 

Let me get this straight. One of our Navy EP-3 military surveillance planes had a mid-air "bump" with a Chinese military jet over the South China Sea early Sunday morning while on a "routine" mission. (News reports categorize this plane as a "classified surveillance plane with technology far in advance of what China now uses.") And the pilot subsequently landed this sophisticated intelligence-gathering equipment at a military airport in Southern China. Am I naïve to ask, why didn't the pilot ditch that plane in the South China Sea?

I hear someone retort, "Because the crew might have been killed." That might be true. And if I were one of the loved ones of a crewmember on that plane that would probably be justification enough for me. But does it justify hand delivering a weapon that has the potential to kill thousands of American lives in future conflicts to an enemy nation? I am not so sure.

Perhaps this incident illustrates a notable shift that has taken place in our country. Instead of recruiting warriors, we recruit social engineers. Instead of training men (mentally) to fight and die for freedom, we train men (and women) for successful commercial careers. Instead of recruiting red-blooded patriots who would rather be dead than red, our military has become a politically correct melting pot of pink and purple (and various other rainbow colors).

During our war against Yugoslavia, we bombed targets from forty thousand feet in the air. Of course, from that altitude our air strikes were often inaccurate and ineffective, but our planes were safe. With this latest China incident, our military personnel again chose to play it safe, but this time that decision provided the communists easy access to some of the most sophisticated surveillance technology in the world.

A former military pilot I spoke with yesterday told me, "Chuck, I was trained to never surrender my aircraft to the enemy. I would crash and burn with my plane before I would land it safely in enemy territory."

And if you think this column is a criticism of our frontline military personnel, you are misinterpreting what I am saying. The problem is leadership. For too long, our political and military leaders have been unwilling to run our military like a military. They are more concerned about placating left wing political groups than they are defending America's vital security interests. This lack of leadership has produced troops that are expected to carry out missions without clearly defined principles. Only our advanced military technology has allowed us to get by with this charade for as long as we have.